Steelers have despicable offensive showing in primetime loss vs Dolphins

The Pittsburgh Steelers fell to 2-5 on the season with a loss to the Dolphins. Here’s why Matt Canada and the offense are largely to blame. 

Despite keeping this contest close on Sunday Night Football, this Week 7 game against the Miami Dolphins could not have gone much worse for Pittsburgh Steelers fans. Entering Sunday, we were hoping to see an offense trending in the right direction and an improved Kenny Pickett. Sadly, we saw neither of these things.

In fact, it was just the opposite. Against an insanely fast Dolphins offense, the defense did their part in this one. Though they did allow 372 yards to Miami, they were excellent on 3rd down — holding Tua Tagovailoa and company to just 4 of 14 conversions, according to ESPN stats.

But as good as their defense was at times, their offense was just the opposite. In fact, the Steelers were just 4 of 14 on third-down attempts as well. However, their offensive game plan was both predictable and infuriating. As a result, Kenny Pickett averaged a dismal 5.8 yards per attempt, and Najee Harris toted the rock for just 3.8 yards per carry.

All of this amounted to just 10 points scored by the Steelers — zero of which came in the second half. In a game when the defense is able to hold the NFL’s fastest offense to just 16 points, we would have hoped for a much different outcome.

Matt Canada is largely to blame for Steelers offensive woes

I’m getting really tired of this. Game after game, Matt Canada’s insanely poor route concepts and highly predictable game plan routinely put the Steelers in brutal situations. Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator was his usual old self in Week 7 against the Dolphins, and the box score is added proof.

From my couch at home, I was calling plays before they happened — already knowing what they were going to run based on the personnel grouping and formations. If I can do this, so can any NFL team game planning against the Steelers.

It’s become completely unacceptable at this point. Speed rollouts and scripted-out out routes need to be scrapped from the playbook. Canada seemingly lives to get his team into third and manageable situations — which is not the mentality any NFL offensive coordinator should have. As a result, the Steelers have scored just 14.4 offensive points per game this season — good for dead last in the NFL to this point.

Kenny Pickett certainly wasn’t perfect in this game either. The rookie quarterback finished with another three-interception performance — which certainly doesn’t help boost his confidence early in his career.

What was slightly encouraging is that Pickett was at least moving the ball when running the two-minute offense. On his final play of the game, the rookie rolled to his left as the play broke down and he tried to direct traffic with Diontae Johnson, but the two weren’t on the same page. Pickett ended up throwing an interception in the endzone to seal Pittsburgh’s fate.

This game was utterly discouraging. There’s really no other way to put it. The offense has not given us a blasted thing to be encouraged by, and the Steelers clearly aren’t going to be competitors this season. Let’s hope some real change happens soon so we don’t have to keep suffering through more abysmal offensive performances like the ones we’ve witnessed all season.